A day at the beach!

Last Sunday was a beautiful and sunny day and we all went to the beach together with Sigrid and her family. Isak had his first swim...

After the beach we relaxed on the veranda at home with a smoothie (made by Adam).

At mum and dads

Mum and dad have helped a lot as always and the day before Isabel was leaving mum took Jakob to visit Maggi and Åsa in Ale. We had planned to go to the beach that day but just as we had finished packing the bags the sun disappeared. At the same time mum called so we quickly changed the plans and spent the day in the city having coffees and cakes and talking, talking and talking.

Jakob and Isak hanging out at mormor and morfars.

Happy Saturday!

Last Saturday Adam wasn't working so he had Jakob most of the day. Isabel and I went shopping during the day and had brunch in the city. In the evening we had booked a table at a restaurant on a boat and enjoyed a nice meal in the evening sun talking talking and talking.

When the music got too loud for us "oldies" we went for a walk along the water before we headed home again.

Saw a few frogs on our walk and I just had to stop and take a photo.

The girls

I have a photo similar to this one of the 3 of us at safari in Kenya taken 15 years ago. I will scan it one day and add it to the blog.

One night we had dinner at Sigrid's place and as always when Jakob gets to play with Elvin all by himself he was so happy.

Isabel and mum and dad

Isabel has met my parents many times, the first time they met was actually in Israel when mum and dad came over for holidays to visit me when I was working there. Not long after Isabel and I (and Sigrid) went on our Africa trip and when coming home Isabel had decided that she really wanted to try and live in Luleå. She followed me home and stayed with me and my parents for over a month. She really liked it here and mum and dad loved having her staying, but it got too hard trying to find a job etc so she went back to London. A few years later Isabel and I travelled in Ireland at the same time as mum and dad and of course we met up and spent a few day together.

Isabel reading Jakob's favourite book to him in Swedish. It took her a couple of pages before she realised that the book was actually all about poos.

Hägnan

Finding time to talk during the days is not easy with two children but Isabel was really great helping me to look after them. Jakob who loves talking kept saying: Come Isabel and Now it is my turn to speak!

One day we spent at Hägnan about 10 min drive outside Luleå. It is a great place for the children to look at animals and to run around and play and have fun. Jakob was not in his greatest mood, very tired and grumpy and got very upset a couple of times.

Isabel

Isabel arrived from London on July 7th and Sigrid and I (and Jakob and Isak) picked her up from the airport. It was so nice to see her again after so many years. She still looks like 25 and as always with close friends it doesn't feel like we haven't seen each other for so long. Isabel gave Jakob a couple of really nice books in English and he wanted her to read them over and over again.

Isabel and Sigrid looking through some old photo albums from our trip to Africa and talking memories. We all remember different things from the trip and it was great fun filling each other in on things that happened on our journey through Africa.

Breakfast on the veranda in the morning!

Nearly rolling

Over the last few weeks Isak has been working hard on trying to roll over to his belly. These photos were taken a couple of days before he did it the first time. He is actually on his belly but his left arm is stuck under his body.

A day at Piteå Caravan Park!

When I grew up my parents had a caravan and we used to travel all over Sweden and also Norway with the caravan. I used to love it. Mum and dad sold their caravan to my brother and his wife only a couple of months ago but the other week mum and dad borrowed it for a couple of nights. Jakob, Isak and I spent the day with them at Piteå Carvan Park and we had a great day with nice weather.

Jakob and mormor on their way to the beach.

The beach is really child friendly with shallow water and nice sand. Mum and I took turns taking Jakob there, he love it!

Isak enjoying the shade!

More from Piteå...

Isak really liked the camping life and slept well on one of the beds in the caravan.

Last year Jakob was really scared of the train but mum managed to convince him to go with her and he was so proud of himself after having done it. This year he was still not sure if he wanted to do it but ended up going by himself!

Sunday

Today I haven't taken any photos at all so for fun I added this old photo of the 3 of us from Australia.

The day has been good. Adam and I took turns sleeping in this morning again and I love it!! after that the neighbours grandchild Filippa came over to play and she also had luch with us. Filippa is 3 years older than Jakob but for some reason they have so much fun together.

After lunch Isak and I went in to the city and had a fika with Carina and Stina. I also went past mum and dad to say hello before heading home again. The rest of the day has been very quiet, spending time with the kids, cleaning, taking away recycling, getting the bedroom ready for Isabel who gets here on Wednesday. I also went for a walk in the evening after Jakob and Isak had gone to bed. So nice to get out in the evening sun!

Lovely Saturday!

After taking turns sleeping in Saturday morning (mine was much longer than Adams...) Adam walked Jakob in to the city when the shops opened and I slowley got out or bed with Isak. Adam did some shopping with Jakob and I picked them up by car around lunch time to go to see Finn. The boys were really excited to see each other. It seems like something has happened to their friendship. Something positive. We still have to help them to sort out some problems (I had the car first, or He hit me etc etc) every now and then but most of the time they play really well and have great fun together. They played outside most of the time but had a few minutes in front of the tv a couple of times.

Taking photos of Adam is not easy. This could have been a good one if Adam had not started walking towards me when I was taking it. I think I will give up trying.

Isak is still happy most of the time but I thought I would show you a photo when he is not smiling. Still very cute though...

After a super nice lunch cooked by Micke and Zara Adam helped them to move some furniture upstairs. I am not really sure what I was doing when they were working but I am sure I was looking after some children. The boys got to play in the water outside for a while before we headed home to have som left over pizza for dinner.

Jakob and Isak

Jakob has started liking being in photos and often he asks me to take pictures of him and he poses for the camera.

Even Isak seems to like it :-)

Isak is still living on breast milk only but we have started practicing sitting in a high chair and Jakob took it a step further by puttin on a bib and trying to force feed him some blocks.

Carina 20 weeks pregnant!

After a tough day with the kids I rode my bike in to the city to catch up with Carina. The night was beautiful and sunny and my bad mood disappeard quickly.
Carina is now 20 weeks pregnant and I am SO happy about that. Carina and I have been close friends pretty much since we started hanging out when we were about 12. That she will have a baby, that will be born the same year as Isak is very exciting. Lots of people think we look very alike and we have often been asked if we are sisters.
After a "fika" in the city we rode our bikes home again and it felt like we were teenagers again riding to or from a party on a Friday night. In many ways it feels like I am still 20 :-)

Tough Friday

Friday I had a very bad day as a mother. Isak slept well and only had one feed at 3.45. Not long after 4.15 Jakob woke up from a nightmare. He dreamt that Finn was hitting him with a monkey (!?). Adam got up and calmed him down, it didn't take very long. 5 minutes later he came in to us saying he needed to go to the toilet so I got up with him. The sunlight in to our bathroom was so strong, felt like it was in the middle of the day so I knew it would be hard for him to get back to sleep. Followed him to bed and did everything I could to get him to go back to sleep. He was very awake but didn't talk so much to start with so I thought it would work. Just after 5 he started sitting up in bed, started talking, saying he wanted to get up and play etc etc. 5.45 I gave up and put him in front of the tv and went back to bed but not long after Adam had to get up to keep him company, and not long after that I had to get up since Adam had to go to work. I was concinced that Jakob would have a sleep on the couch some time in the morning so for hours I tried to get him to relax and have a sleep without any success. I was tired and grumpy and not a very happy mummy. Later in the afternoon, when it was too late for him to have a sleep he started to get really really tired and I had to do everything I could to keep him awake. Luckily Adam came home quite early so that kept Jakob going until bedtime and made me at least a little bit happier.

Last day at dagis!

Thursday was Jakob's last day at dagis, he is now on 5 weeks "holidays". Most children left a week ago, there were only 4 boys left the last 2 days. On top of that all the permanent staff were having time off so for 2 days there were temporary staff that Jakob had never met. The other 3 boys are all 6 years old and not the once he normally played with. I left it up to Jakob to decide if he wanted to go or not and I told him he didn't have to. I must be incredible boring to be with because I don't think it would ever cross his mind to stay home if he had the choice between dagis or staying home. I am glad that he likes it there though. After his last day we went to mum and dads and they looked after Isak while Jakob and I walked in to the city to buy him a t-shirt that he got to pick himself. It was a present from grandma and poppa, thank you very much! Shopping with Jakob is not relaxing in any way but we got through it and the result you can see in the picture. It would not have been my first choice if I was picking but it was kind of cute that picked it himself and even wanted to cut off the tag and put it on in the shop.
Back at mum and dads Jakob helped mormor to make pancakes, she is much more patient then I am!

Playing with mormor...

And relaxing with morfar...